The blast occurred around midday at the Habas Demir Celik iron and steel plant located in Izmir province's Aliaga district. A crane carrying a replacement boiler collapsed directly into an electric arc furnace amid the liquid steel casting process, resulting in heavy smoke and extensive building damage. Turkish Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu confirmed the fatality count climbed following the death of a critically injured worker in a regional hospital.
Key points
Equipment failure during furnace maintenance triggered a lethal blast and extensive struc…: Equipment failure during furnace maintenance triggered a lethal blast and extensive structural collapse at the plant.
The catastrophe took place in the Aliaga district, a critical industrial and maritime por…: The catastrophe took place in the Aliaga district, a critical industrial and maritime port hub in western Turkey.
Search and rescue operations were mobilized alongside regional hospitals treating the twe…: Search and rescue operations were mobilized alongside regional hospitals treating the twelve surviving injured workers.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
At least 17 people were killed and 12 others injured in western Turkey in a factory blast on Monday. The explosion ripped through an iron and steel factory, with search and rescue operations continuing amid reports that workers were still trapped under the rubble.
The explosion occurred around midday at the Habas Demir Celik plant in the Aliaga district of Izmir province. All those killed and injured were workers at the facility, authorities said.
Footage from the scene showed a large fire inside the factory, with thick plumes of smoke and dust rising above the facility. Eyewitnesses said the explosion was so powerful that it shook the ground. One person initially believed an earthquake had struck.
The death toll rose to 17 after one of the injured workers, who was in critical condition, died later, Turkey's health minister Kemal Memişoğlu said. "Unfortunately, another of our citizens has lost their life in the explosion at a steel factory in İzmir and the fire that followed, after being in critical condition," he wrote in a post on X.
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